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Warren-AbHist31-2007

In 1788 the British established convict colony in New South Wales. Smallpox spread into aboriginal clans. Controversy has erupted over whether this was deliberate. Some exonerate the British by assuming their stocks of smallpox were no longer viable. This article rigorously examines the evidence and demonstrates that British smallpox could easily have caused the 1789 outbreak.

In 1788 the British established convict colony in New South Wales. Smallpox spread into aboriginal clans. Controversy has erupted over whether this was deliberate. Some exonerate the British by assuming their stocks of smallpox were no longer viable. This article rigorously examines the evidence and demonstrates that British smallpox could easily have caused the 1789 outbreak.

In April 1789, British colonists at Sydney Cove noticed large numbers of Aboriginesdying from smallpox. Two hundred years later this event still raises concerns thatunknown First Fleeters may have infected Aboriginal clans with smallpox. Contrari-wise, several authors – including Josephine Flood, Alan Frost, Charles Wilson and JudyCampbell – maintain that First Fleet smallpox did not cause the outbreak as, in Flood’swords, ‘infection of Aborigines with bottled scabs was not merely implausible butimpossible’.

1

However this view is based on an assumption that the hot weather during theFleet’s voyage and at Sydney Cove would have sterilised any smallpox virus. This isnot so and none of these authors have tested their ‘hot weather’ assumption by refer-ring to the temperature records of the First Fleet. Once this is done alternativeconclusions follow.This article reviews the evidence and demonstrates that British smallpox couldretain sufficient viral activity until 1789 to infect local Aborigines. Whether infectionoccurred from this source is a separate issue that remains shrouded in conflicting evi-dence and is not being considered here.

The literature

The 1789 outbreak of smallpox is controversial but the question we are concerned withhere, the continuing infectivity of British smallpox, can be separated from associatedissues. Other issues are canvassed by Cumpston, Curson and Campbell.

2

Material onthe infectivity and transmission of smallpox was published in Dixon and by the WorldHealth Organisation in

Smallpox and its eradication

authored by Frank Fenner andothers.

3

Of the 18th-century literature concerning the 1789 outbreak, only the memoirs ofCaptain Watkin Tench mention stocks of smallpox material. There is no mention ofsmallpox material in the official lists of medical supplies. There is one other mention inthe 18th century of smallpox material – in Philip Gidley King’s 1792 letter to Sir JosephBanks requesting supplies to protect children at Norfolk Island if necessary.

4

1.

Flood 2006: 125.

2.

Cumpston 1914; Curson 1985; Campbell 2002.

3.

Dixon 1962; Fenner et al 1988. The latter resource is available on the internet at http://whqlib-doc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106.pdf

NOTES & DOCUMENTS 153

In the 19th century, Edward Curr and Frank Tidswell concluded that the 1789smallpox outbreak originated from the First Fleet but no author appears to haveaddressed the role, if any, of the British supplies. Curr and Tidswell assumed thatsmallpox from a hypothetical outbreak on the

Alexander

remained infective andescaped into the community.

5

Early in the 20th century, EC Stirling and JB Cleland suggested that the 1789 out-break of smallpox may have originated from Asian seafarers arriving in northernAustralia.

6

In 1914, JHL Cumpston rejected this view on the grounds that the FirstFleet’s:variolous matter cannot be dismissed lightly as a possible source of the epidemic... the safest course would seem to be to follow the generally accepted theory thatthe introduction of the disease amongst the aborigines was in some way associ-ated with the arrival in Australia of a comparatively large number of Europeans.

7

In the 1980s Noel Butlin suggested ‘the British were well aware’

8

that First Fleetsmallpox could ‘remain infective for many years’ and that Tench’s ‘wild’ and ‘unwor-thy’ supposition needed closer inspection.

9

This proposition was supported by DavidDay

10

but contested by Judy Campbell, Charles Wilson and Alan Frost who arguedthat, as ‘variolous matter’ was damaged by conditions during the First Fleet’s voyage, itwas incapable of transmitting infection.

11

After the year 2000 – and except for a few including Reynolds, Foley and Maynardand Kociumbas

12

– the rigour of the literature degenerates. In 2002 Judy Campbelllabelled Butlin’s work as myth-making and claimed that his comments damaged ‘pros-pects for reconciliation in modern Australia’.

13

In addition several commentators – JohnConnor, Tim Flannery and Tom Keneally – introduced problematic variations into theliterature. These authors claim there was only ‘a bottle’ of smallpox scabs

14

and that it‘remained sealed’

15

or ‘unbroken and secure on a shelf’.

16

At this point the literatureprovides no resolution and various writers simply recycle past theories for alternativesources for the outbreak or support First Fleet responsibility, depending on theirvarying estimations of the relevance of the imported British supplies of smallpox.However scientific papers on the infectivity of smallpox, particularly several itemspublished in the

Bulletin of the World Health Organization

and

The Lancet

in the 20thcentury, can provide additional clarification (discussed below).

4.

Copy at http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/series_39/39_004.cfm

(accessed 24 October2006).

5.

Curr 1886: 226. Tidswell’s comment is in Cumpston 1914: 172.

6.

Stirling 1911; Cleland 1912.

7.

Cumpston 1914: 2.

8.

See Butlin 1985: 334.

9.

Butlin 1983: 21.

10.

Day 1997[1996]: 63.

11.

Campbell 1984; Wilson 1987; Frost 1995.

12.

Reynolds 2001; Foley and Maynard 2001; Kociumbas 2004.

13.

Campbell 2002: 60f.

14.

Connor 2002: 30.

15.

Flannery 1999: 88.

16.

Keneally 2005: 202, 209.

154 ABORIGINAL HISTORY 2007 VOL 31

In general, the post-Butlin claims of destruction of smallpox virus by heat duringthe First Fleet’s voyage have prolonged controversy – much of it revisiting old issuesthat otherwise would be unsustainable. To some extent this controversy compromisesscholarly examination of ‘first contact’ and ‘frontier conflict’ issues and diverts Aborigi-nal history from foundational themes.

Smallpox at Sydney Cove

As noted above, we have only one report of smallpox materials at Sydney Cove – apointed quote from Captain Watkin Tench informing his readers that First Fleet sur-geons ‘had brought out variolous matter in bottles’.

17

‘Variolous material’ is the 18thcentury term for infectious smallpox scabs or pus collected from infected patients andused to prevent others contracting the disease. (‘Variola’ is the Latin name for the small-pox virus.) Unfortunately Tench did not indicate what type of variolous matter he wasreferring to. First Fleet surgeons would not have purchased fluid variolous matter ormoist pus on cotton as mould and humidity would have endangered the virus.

18

Thissuggests First Fleet material was dried variolous matter and we know from Dr Gatti, aleading contemporary physician, that 18th century inoculators were advised to use‘powdered matter’ when ‘only scabs are to be had’.

19

The inclusion of variolous mate-rial in medical supplies by sea-surgeons was not compulsory in the 18th century,

20

asits use was still objectionable to many; smallpox was relatively rare at sea, and inciden-tal outbreaks could be handled by sourcing fluid variolous matter from patients.

21

Nonetheless, with children aboard, First Fleet surgeons may have purchased variolousmaterials before departure from England or at Rio de Janerio.The capacity of smallpox-related virus in scabs to survive long sea voyages shouldnot be underestimated. According to William Russell, the Superintendent-General ofVaccination and Inoculation in Bengal, scabs were ‘one of the most certain means ofpreserving the [cowpox] Virus in a state of activity for a length of time, and the easiestmode of conveying the Infection to a distance’.

22

In 1804, cowpox scab material was rec-ommended for transmitting vaccine virus from Bengal to New South Wales

23

and aslate as 1813, we still find scab material being used.

24

All things considered, it appearsthat First Fleet bottles contained scabs although some bottles may have contained otherforms of dried inoculation material.

25

The voyage

The First Fleet departed Portsmouth in May 1787 and sailed through tropical heat whilecrossing the equator en route to Rio de Janerio. For some writers, this period of hotweather, plus the heat experienced through a summer or two at Sydney Cove, would

17.

Tench cited in Fitzhardinge 1961: 146.

18.

Haygarth 1793: 303; Jenner, 1798: 56f.

19.

Gatti 1768: 33.

20.

Lloyd and Coulter 1961, vol III: 349.

21.

Dr Thomas Trotter in Lloyd 1965: 309f.

22.

Russell 1813: 1.

23.

Shoolbred 1807: 370.

24.

Russell 1813: 1. Ivory tips were used also.

25.

James Watt mentions discharge from smallpox sores dried on cotton wool and stored in bot-tles, see Watt 1989: 145.